Lockheed-Aeritalia F-104S by Danstream - FINISHED - Hasegawa - 1:48

[Egilman]

Yep that's a wonderful technique to get a scale featheredge paint job....

 

I know it doesn't look like it, It looks like you would see it from 50 feet away, but that's the way they look in real life... get up close, (8 to 10 ft away in scale = 480 feet in real life) and you don't see the soft transitions... (about 4" in scale = 16' away in real life)

 

Scale is the ticket here, I see no hard edges which is what it's supposed to look like...

 

Nice work....

Edited January 6 by Egilman

[Danstream]

Hi all,

a small update of my build, while working on the camouflage, I started to work also on the preparation of the landing gear pieces. I cleaned all the parts, filling extractor marks and furnishing them with some wiring simplifying what seen in the pictures of the real thing.

Then a black primer followed:

Finally, I sprayed them with a metallic white alumimium along with their L.G. bay doors. At the end, I picked up some details with Tamiya black and brown panel accent liners.

I will complete them with little placards that I will obtain from pieces of black decals. Landing gears are one of my favorite subject and generally, with little attention they can be improved quite a bit.

That is all for now,

Best regards,

Dan

[king derelict]

Dan

The dressed up landing gear looks very good. It makes the gear look much more than sticks

alan

[Landlubber Mike]

Just caught up with your log Dan, really nice job!  Love the camo scheme - your paint job looks perfect!

 

Can I ask a question?  I noticed your sanded the primer base with 2000 grit.  Is there a reason you did so?  Was it for the grey/green camo?  The aluminum underside?  I've only sanded primer and painted areas where I found a flaw, so am curious as to why you did so.  I've seen other modelers do it - I think often to improve the effect for metallic paints - and always wondered the reason.

[Danstream]

Hi Mike,

thanks for your comments.

 

About you question about wet sanding, in preparing the model, I went through progressively finer sanding, smoothing and rescribing or rebuilding details in specific areas. Even after priming these areas, I found blemishes to be addressed and locally sanded down to 1000 grit, sometimes wet. After the final coat of priming (1), when no blemishes were found anymore (or almost), I went through the complete model with a wet 2000 with the paper well soaked in water and with a very light touch. This eliminates any possible granularity of the paint and left the surface as smooth as silk. This was a good start for the camo colors. Possibly, I will sand the entire airframe after the clear coat with even finer grits (3000 or 4000, always wet) and even after the sealing of the decals. At the end, my aim is to have a silk smooth finish that even with a matt coating will possibly reflect light as an 'egg shell' imitating as far as possible the light reflections seen in pictures. This is an approach that works well for me and every time I try new procedures, but be aware that is easy to remove too much color and spoil the work done until then (2).

Happy modeling,

Dan

(1) Note that if you insist with priming you might obliterate surface details. In this build, I intentionally tried to obliterate details (as much as practical) on wings and tail surface. 

(2) For this, I have procured sanding pads with grits from 3000 to 12000, although I never used the finest range which I believe are good for glossy finish of car models.

[Canute]

Tamiya primers come in 2 "grits", one is the fine primer, many of us use: the other is a leveling primer, which will fill details as Dan says.

[Danstream]

Hi,

I went on with the main airframe, I wanted to apply the remaining aluminium paint on the underside. The Italian painting scheme of the '70s had the underside painted with a matt aluminium which I am replicating with Metallic color 'white Aluminium' by Vallejo. The finish of this paint isn't matt, but it doesn't matter because it will be adjusted to the correct finish.

Here is the model ready to be sprayed:

Here the result:

The demarcations with the camouflage are quite ok, with only few oversprays to be addressed:

The overall look resembles quite well the scheme seen in period pictures (and it also matches my memories).

Now, while the paint cures, I will continue with the small parts.

Best regards,

Dan

[amateur]

This is the scheme I remember most

Although having seen this plane many times, I actually never noticed how small those wings are (my eyes probably a bit detracted by the large wingtip fueltanks)

 

The model is coming together nicely.

Jan

[Danstream]

Hi,

working on touching up blemishes on the livery, I had one of my seniority moments, when re-spraying the aluminium paint, I made the masking few centimeter shy of what was needed and I got this:

I hate when this happens, just a couple of tape stripes more could have avoided that. So, back to the camo colors to repair the damage. This is eventually the end result, with most of the blemishes addressed and the rudder and the leading edge slats finally glued on.

In between, I also managed to finish the landing gears adding the finished wheels:

A nice addition was the pitot probe that is a brass aftermarket from Master:

I love these brass addition from this company in Poland, they are really sharp and accurate and can greatly enhance the usually sloppy bits like, pitot tubes, gun barrels, etc. Here the nose cone is just dry tested. I wonder how many times I will knock it off before the end.

 

Finally, another picture of the overall airframe this time taken with natural light to better appreciate the real hue of the camouflage colors:

Now everything is ready for the gloss coat which I will spray after the paint touch-ups are well cured. Meanwhile, I have to start thinking of the external loads, having Hasegawa provided only the tip tanks in the kit.

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

 

Edited January 21 by Danstream

[Danstream]

Hi all,

at the end of the last instalment, I said that I was ready to spray the gloss coat on the airframe. Well, actually I changed my mind and chose to color the remaining bits that need to be finished with a different color.

 

The resin panels on the lower part of the fuselage:

The resin panel on the spine and the black edge of the air intakes:

I also removed the masking material from the air intakes. Switching to the underwing loads, I sourced the Sparrow (Aires) and the Sidewinder (Eduard) resin missiles. 

Unusually, the Sparrows came split in two halves, so I added a central pin to reinforce the junction. Both types are immensely better than the crude reproductions that came with my previous F-15 model. In addition, I started scratch building the underwing pylons and the launch rails from styrene plates and stocks. I will just add some rivet lines to make them more interesting.

Now, I am really ready for the gloss coat.

Best regards,

Dan

Edited January 27 by Danstream

[Danstream]

Hi all, just a small update to show that work is on going. I finished the first gloss coat on the overall airframe. Small pieces have still to be completed:

Unfortunately, divots on the wings are still evident, but I will have to live with that. The rest is looking fine. In principle, I could start decaling, but I have not chosen the group squadron yet. Meanwhile, I started to work with oil colors on the wheel bay.

On the front part, I used the oil colors for the panels and to discolor the glass fiber dielectric panel:

Going on with the other surface details, but I believe I need another gloss layer before the decals.

Best regards,

Dan

 

 

 

Edited January 30 by Danstream

[Danstream]

Hi all, I completed the paneling of the underside of the fuselage with a black oil color which admittedly might be a bit too stark.

Then, I decided to go for a second coat of Tamiya gloss X-22 finally obtaining the good smooth finish that I wanted.

Thanks to the wet sanding and two very thinned gloss coats, I obtained the good level of smoothness that I wanted and that is shown in the details below.

Now, I am really ready for decaling (actually, I have still to finish the inside of the jet opening). As said in earlier posts, the original Hasegawa decals don't look that good with whites that appear creamy and I didn't like them. Fortunately, I bought from an Italian shop on the web a nice decal sheet from SkyModels dedicated to this specific aircraft with a large choice of markings.

The quality of the print looks excellent (made by Cartograph) and there are plenty of different possibilities to chose from.

That is all for now, I will take my time to select the group or squadron which looks coolest to me.

Best regards,

Dan

 

 

 

Edited February 1 by Danstream

[king derelict]

Beautiful finish Dan. The details really look great 

alan

[Danstream]

Hi there,

I am slowly progressing with this build, but not at the pace that I expected, though. Actually, I retired from work two weeks ago, but it seems that my hobby time has not increased, being a lot of time required in administrative and domestic affairs. At any rate, here I am. I started decorating the F-104 with the Italian roundels, but I have not yet committed which squadron badge will be sported by it.

On the underside, I started to brush dirt trails in the area of the tail with oil colors:

I also used oil colors on the cones of the air intakes to highlight details

I worked to finish the scratch built pylons and the resin missiles. This is a dry fit of the Sparrow:

Comparing with pictures of the plane, I realized that the missile sits a bit too forward and I need to shift it back.

These resin missiles are another level of detailing when compared with the rough ones that I used on my F-15 few builds ago. I hope @Canute , who is a guru on the matter, is watching and will approve what I am doing.

I am now working on the Sidewinder and soon I will show also that.

 

That is it for now,

best regards,

Dan

[AJohnson]

Congratulations on your retirement Dan, hope you get more time for your models as you adjust to your new "normal"  Your F104 is looking really good! 

[Dave_E]

Congratulations on the retirement. I’ve heard it said a few times “now that I'm retired I can’t find the time to do what needs doing”. 😆 The jet looks great! 👍

[king derelict]

The F104 is looking very nice Dan.

Congratulations on retirement. You will be amazed how people will fill up your time for you

Alan

[Egilman]

Congratulations on gaining your freedom from wage slavery... {chuckle} Well paid for I'm sure....

 

But, don't forget to find something to do outside the house, otherwise you will start hearing about being underfoot all the time.... {chuckle} 

 

Retired since '93.... My admiral kinda chuckles now when we remember those days.... But it was a significant lifestyle change, all at once.... (will take some getting used to)

 

Your zipper is looking great, Need to get back to mine... {chuckle}

Edited February 22 by Egilman

[Landlubber Mike]

Loving your build Dan.  Congrats on retiring!

 

[gsdpic]

Amazing details being brought forward on this jet.   Looking forward to seeing it completed.   Those extra decals look good but I've never seen a sheet of decals so packed together.  Better not let the scissors slip at all when cutting them out.

 

And as everyone has said, congrats on the retirement.  I am about 10 months in on my retirement and still adjusting.  Though I don't have an admiral around to "help" with the adjustment.

 

[Danstream]

Hi guys, thank you very much for your kind messages for my retirement 🙏. I have still to get used to my new status and I am spending a lot of time in front of the PC, responding mails, doing administration and paying bills. I see from your messages that all that is to be expected. I need also to do some works in the house which remained a bit behind all these years. I will be missing my work, the business trips in most of the significant places in Europe, the launch campaign in French Guiana and the last recent one at Cape Canaveral, however, I will not be missing the Monday morning project report meetings.

 

Back to modelling, thanks for commenting positively my work. I am still working on the ordnance pylons, every second day I find new pictures that show different arrangements. Most probably, configurations changed along the years and I have to draw a line and stop modifying. My intention is also to resume naval modelling which languished for long time.

 

13 hours ago, gsdpic said:

Those extra decals look good but I've never seen a sheet of decals so packed together.  Better not let the scissors slip at all when cutting them out.

Indeed, the sheet is very packed and I already spoiled one of the items. I am now much more careful and I am using a sharp knife instead of the scissors. 

 

Best regards,

Dan

[Canute]

Dan, your Sparrows are spot on war shots, The yellow band is in the correct location, on the warhead area.

 

Congrats on your retirement. It takes a little getting used to, but now I ask myself how I ever got any "work" done. 😁

[Danstream]

Hi there,

I went on with decaling and I opted for the 51^ group of the Italian Air Force based in the North of Italy the badge of which depicts a black cat chasing three green mice.

The three green mice were the emblem of the S.M.79s winners of several competitions at the end of the years '30. Because of rivalry between groups of the Air Force, the 51^ adopted the bad cat chasing the green mice for their badge. I was amused by this story and found the cartoon style of the badge really nice.

 

I managed to resolve also a problem with the pitot tube that had a thin red spiraling stripe around it. It was impossible to apply a thin decal stripe because the radius of the tube was too small and the decal refused to coil and stay attached around it. My last resort was to mask it with tape:

To be sure of not having paint seeping below the tape, I sealed the tape with clear varnish and for added safety I brushed it with a thick red enamel. The result was not too bad:

In the picture, you can see also some service stencils that I started to apply (there are zillions of them) and the quality of the decals can be appreciated. It is possible to read all the texts and they are all correct without typos (also the Italian text is correct, differently from what often happens with Chinese decals).

Finally, I modified for the last time the pylons of the missiles and completed also the Sidewinder. This should be the last version:

That's all for now, thanks for following,

Dan

 

Edited February 24 by Danstream

[king derelict]

Great job on the pitot Dan

 

alan

[Danstream]

Hi,

just finished to apply the decals. I omitted a number of service stencils because they seem a tad too large and disrupt the appearance of the aircraft. In pictures, they are not that noticeable. In addition, they vary according to the epoch of the picture.

In general, the quality of the decals is very good, but I have the impression that they are all slightly oversized. At any rate, this is where I am now, after a coat of diluted clear gloss on the airframe and main parts which should seal the decals and uniform the finish.

The gloss coat was the Tamiya X-22 (20%) diluted with the good Gunze levelling thinner. The underside too got the same treatment.

With the sealed decals, the model is ready for the last oil color paneling. It is really a pity that I didn't putty the rivets/divots of the wings. Afterwards, a matt/satin coat will follow.

 

Best regards,

Dan

[Landlubber Mike]

Looks great Dan - nice decal work.

[Danstream]

On 3/1/2024 at 7:42 PM, Landlubber Mike said:

Looks great Dan - nice decal work.

Thanks Mike. The decals went down very nicely and reacted well to setting liquids, the only negative bit, as I wrote, was that they look a tad too large. This is something that I noticed more than once with decals. The aircraft completely glossy has its appeal and when these aircraft were new they had a kind of glossy finish.

Best regards,

Dan

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, Danstream said:

....when these aircraft were new they had a kind of glossy finish.

They were kept that way through their entire lifecycle, at least ours were... 

[Danstream]

Hi @Egilman, the paints of the Italian NATO camouflage aged along their lifetime, but one problem is that the grey aged much more than the green becoming matt and clearer. I didn't plan for that, and now it would be quite inconvenient to mask everything for depicting a grey finish which is much faded than the green one. At the beginning, I just post shaded the grey to show a slight discoloration in few areas. Therefore I will keep the aircraft as it was almost new, and I am going to finish everything with a satin clear coat.

Saluti,

Dan

[Danstream]

Dear all,

I went on and put in place the landing gears previously prepared.

I committed the final finish coat opting, as anticipated, for a satin finish obtained by Tamiya clear XF-86 plus some X-22, everything heavily thinned with Gunze levelling thinner, obtaining this result:

I am quite happy with the smoothness and reflectivity of this that should resemble an almost new aircraft. Finally, after many months, I can remove the masking from the clear parts:

 

Here, I removed the canopy hood to check the interior. Clearly, the cockpit sills need still to be painted. Only two small blemishes on the transparent parts need to be addressed. The jet nozzle can now go into its place:

Next, the seat needs to be done,

best regards,

Dan

Edited March 4 by Danstream